1. Field
This disclosure relates to the field of heating and cooling systems and, more particularly, to cooling and heating systems incorporating a thermoelectric device.
2. Description of Related Art
A passenger compartment of a vehicle is typically heated and cooled by a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The HVAC system directs a flow of air through a heat exchanger to heat or cool the air prior to flowing into the passenger compartment. In the heat exchanger, energy is transferred between the air and a coolant such as a water-glycol coolant, for example. The air is normally supplied from ambient air or a mixture of air re-circulated from the passenger compartment and ambient air. Energy for heating and cooling of the passenger compartment of the vehicle is typically supplied from a fuel fed engine such as an internal combustion engine, for example.
Some automotive HVAC architectures include a thermoelectric device that provides supplemental heating and/or cooling of air flowing to the passenger compartment. Existing automotive thermoelectric device HVAC architectures suffer from various drawbacks.